LSU Team advances to final round in a Louisiana-focused international design competition

What will our state look like in the year 2100?

That’s a question Environmental Sciences Masters student Emma Field and some of her fellow LSU students have been pondering, as they advance to the final round in an international design challenge focused on the Louisiana coast.

Their team is called Studio Bayou. The competition is part of the WUR Student Challenges, a series of competitions hosted by the Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, and focused on issues from around the globe. Field and some of her teammates will be traveling to Europe next week to participate in the final judging. 

Watch their team video on Instagram or LinkedIn

Surviving and Thriving

The question on everyone’s docket: how can coastal Louisiana not just survive but thrive in the second half of the 21st century? What would it look like?

Studio Bayou centered their designs around the theme of currents, as in the “the currents that connect us – ecology, community, and economy,” Field says.

To this end, she says the team employed a lot of nature-based designs as they looked to the future. “Most of it is natural solutions, like little mini-diversions,” she said. The focus is on bringing people into the process. “We are taking a humanitarian lens through nature based solutions. We’re trying to work with people and CPRA and industry, and create immediate interventions.”

Their plan focuses on three different areas in south Louisiana: the City of New Orleans, the small communities like Grand Bayou and Delacroix that dot the state’s coastline, and the coastal zone. The team proposes deploying solutions based on each area’s individual needs: chenier terracing and urban agriculture are among the ideas for New Orleans, amphibious architecture built to float on floodwaters in coastal communities.  

The Final Challenge

Studio Bayou will be competing with ten other teams from around the world.

Judging will take place on June 2nd. Teams will submit a three-minute video to be presented to a panel judges, complete an oral Q and A, and participate in a one-minute pitch session.

Field, who is from Baton Rouge and completed her undergraduate degree in Coastal Environmental Sciences, said she hopes the other participants understand how critical the challenges faced by coastal Louisiana are. 

“I hope they treat the local knowledge with respect. It's hard to know exactly what's going to work and what's not going to work if you've never been in it,” she said.